I dont get to see much of BD cricket team's live performance, but from the sports news, I gather that our cricket team is suffering from lack of openers. Golla shows glimpses of his ability very rarely. Most of the time he is overly cautious and shuffles too much which leads to his getting LBWs. As for Hannan Sarkar, I am at a loss to express my disgust. I was able to watch the test match against Sri Lanka where Vaas took a hattrick with the first 3 balls of the innings. The very first ball pitched on the off stamp, instead of blocking and adjusting his eye to the pitch, Hannan went for a drive and got clean bowled. I am disgusted to see how an international cricketer would try to whack the very first ball of the innings without getting his eye in! Utter disbelief! I know that Sunil Gavasker may have done that more than anyone else, but lets not kid ourselves by comparing HIM with Hanna Sarkar! I dont think there is any hope for Sarkar. If you look carefully, he doesnt even take time to settle down. Comes in, whacks the ball, gets his wicket knocked off, bows his head and heads back to the pavillion. A very sorry sight repeated over and over again (despite his heroics in Australia). If he wants to stay in the side (I dont see why he should be in the side becoz he doesnt contribute with the bat and the ball and drops catches..he is not even a good cordon fielder) he should be penalized his entire match fee by the BD administration for trying to whack the ball in the first 5 overs. This must be a rule for Hannan alone, he has to only defend in those first 5 overs, not take any singles, even if that means putting pressure on his partner. Otherwise, he is out for good, since he is not getting any younger.

I have one other concern - with short pitched chest high deliveries on fast bouncy pitches, BD cricketers are prone to hooking and pulling which is their main downfall as they dont have the technique to defend against such balls. We should have some sort of ball-machine that can generate high speed chest high deliveries during net sessions in BD, like they have in Australian cricket academies.

I dont think BD will be able to score more than 180 in both the innings in Sabina Park, becoz we simply are not equipped to deal with fast and short pitched balls. If Hannan plays, he will be out for single digit. Golla might stick around for 20 odd runs. Bashar wont be able to emulate his previous batting becoz he wont be as lucky. There would be a total middle order collapse due to Ashraful, Faisal, Mushfiq and Pilot's inability to play short pitched deliveries. Rajin Saleh maybe the only player to offer any resistance. There wont be any rearguard fight this time around. The euphoria and the exhilaration from the first test match could be partly blamed for the performance in the second test, and the rest is our inability to handle fast tracks as we have been brought up on flat and docile tracks.

Hannan definitely has something wrong with his technique. He does not know where his off stump is. In the first test, he was out in both innings, leaving balls that were coming into him to hit middle or off. He was not out in either innings, playing a rash shot but rather, while trying to be circumspect and leave balls which, he believed we're going to miss off stump. Perhaps our batting coach can work on this with him? I personally feel that he does have the necessary skills to be an opener, it's just some parts of his game that need to be worked on. As far as the Sabina Park pitch and how much we will score is concerned, our entire team needs to learn from the way Pilot played in the second innings. For a team which apparently cannot play short pitched bowling too well, our top order seems to play the hook and pull shot very well indeed. However, there are times when discretion is the better part of valor. When the fielding team places a log leg and a deep square leg and bowls short pitched, it is obvious that they are setting a trap. For some reason our batsmen seem to lack the mental faculty to see this very obvious ploy. Case in point, Bashar the captain. He played the hook and pull throughout his century innings inspite of the field settings. It was only a matter of time before he got caught out in that position. Pilot on the other hand took body blows rather than give his wicket away cheaply by pulling straight down the throat of deep backward square or long leg.

To ODI cricketer Rassel...Hi mate,
instead of opening your arms to new members , you are up to your old mischievious and nutty behavior of prescribing your home made zoloft therapy??? Not very hygenic..is it?

Originally posted by AussieBloke
To ODI cricketer Rassel...Hi mate,
instead of opening your arms to new members , you are up to your old mischievious and nutty behavior of prescribing your home made zoloft therapy??? Not very hygenic..is it?

What is S.S. by the way?

You didnít leave me any choice to open up my arms! I donít think it was a good idea to start a thread with a pessimistic view in your very first post. Every time a new member does it, take for granted anybody would get some backslash from fellow members. By the way, who predicted that we will score 180 in both innings ďNostradamus?Ē

at times, i feel like hannan is the most sound and "long term prospect" opener of bd, and on the second moment, i feel like why the heck he's in the team. as suggested, i think he might need a "vacation treatment" too. it worked like va****a for ashraful. alok is under treatment now, and if it works on alok as well, i'm sure we need to put hannan in a vacation. i believe he has the potential and merit. all he needs is proper guidence and willingness to correct himself. firstone is easy, but his will to be good, who knows how strong that is.

Rassel man..I didnt know that a new member is supposed to be timid in expressing his views and cajole the existing members of the forum. Just like you, I like to express my mind. You ought to read between the lines, this is not a pessimistic opinion but just a truthful insight..well, I guess ppl will always disagree. But its better to be realistic then be a hardcore supporter devoid of reality. I love BD cricket team, but they ought to be able to take the criticism (which happens to be the true) with the sweet smell of success.

We will talk again after the first innings score in Sabina Park...DEAL?

IMHO opinion AussieBloke's analysis was not based on any sound observation. As Samiur66 pointed out Hannan was out on both occasions purely by misjudging the incoming deliveries. Atleast he tried to judge the deliveries! And to be successful in bouncy pitches one have to be good at horizontal bat shots. In test level bowlers will hardly provide the oportunities to drive. The keyword should be "discretion". You are not going to hook if both fineleg and deep midwicket/square leg is positioned wating for this very shot.

Bangladesh might get booked well below 180 (WI scored only 49!). But it is also possible tigers will once again disprove the pessimists and will surprise all and sundry. When I look back at their performances in Australia, Pakistan and in this series.............I'm convinced these guys have what it takes to rise above all nay-sayers!

Who in our team gets out hooking most? Habibul Bashar. And he is the most successful batsmen. Most of his runs come from that too. Next was Alok Kapali. Unfortunately he was not a natural pull/hook lover. Ali Zia taught him that and when he was in a purple patch it worked like a chum. But once his confidence was gone, he lost it. Next Ashraful.......this little fella is very quick to judge the line and legth of the deliveries. But unfortunately most of his shots are low-percentage-shots. His positioning and footwork will be perfect but he will hit/mishit the ball in the air. If he increase his percentage shots, and that is a big if, he will be our first truely worldclass bat.

I agree with Samiur666ís analysis. Hannan injudiciously decided to leave a ball (actually two) that was coming in. To me, this is one of the most disgusting mode of dismissal. You have seen the ball and you could have played a shot (defensive or otherwise), but you decide to leave it and it hits your stumps or gets you plumb in front of the wicket. That too, twice in the same test. But I would still be in favor of letting him open in the second test. The reasons being we do not have a third specialist opener in this team, and any experimentation with the opening pair on a pitch where balls are supposed to fly would be more disastrous. It will really be a testing time not only for our openers, but also for our upper order batsmen who may have to come in early.

I do not necessarily agree that we would be bundled out for a low score. First of all these predictions are meaningless. If the outfield is fast (an assumption) and with the balls coming/flying in very fast there are bound to be lot more boundaries. If our batsmen can take the faster deliveries without fear or intimidation then we will post a decent score. This will take real guts and surely some bruising here and there. And I believe we have players like Javed, Rajin and Pilot who have the patience to negotiate these. Cricket is a real mind-game. The same bowlers who come firing up when they get wickets will start to bowl lose after a while when they donít. We have to wait for that in a test match.

I just have two concerns Ė that over-confidence does not creep in after the first test performance, and that we donít drop catches like we did in the first test. Another point, they should put a price on their wicket, like in the first test. I know this thread started with Hannan, but I donít think he is the main issue for the next test.

My heartiest congratulations to the Tigers for making me a believer in their slow ascend to greater performance. For a successive second time we hung around to bat the next day. My prediction of 180 was a kind of attempt to boost their morale, so that they would be able to score more than that (hopefully someone in the sqaud was reading the posts). And they DID! I am HAPPY that I was proven wrong...and delighted that we again proved that our performance at St. Lucia was not a fluke incident. Hope we can cash in on the pressure on the WI team to win (that they have put themselves in unnecessarily) and go past the 300 mark. That would set up an enthralling encounter in the remaining days and just might cause a change in the WI leadership (lol).

However the way the game went , it felt like the Tigers were copying the predictions made on this forum to the dot. Despite repeated appeals to Bashar to restrain his urge to pull and hook, he got out pulling. Ashraful as was predicted looked uncomfortable against the short pitched deliveries continuously whizzing past his chest. Rana tried hard to prove his worth against the better judgement. Golla made a mess of his innings falling at his favorite 20s (not sticking around until tea session as was advised). The rearguard again came to the rescue (we better stop calling them tail and label them as the "top order" as is suggested everywhere). When the buck stops, Pilot, Rafique, Tapash and Aziz rescues the day. But I would have prefered the so-called top order not to have followed the predictions so doggedly and with such inhibition.

A last comment for our favorite son - Hannan Sarkar. For the third time he has fallen for the first ball of the innings. For the 2nd time it was a repeat of his trying to leave the ball (copy of the first test at St. Lucia). He has grown a tendency to leave everyone gawking at his abissmal performance (soon he would be making Wisden history in his short international career). How many times is he going to break the spine of our team? Its tantamount pressure when the opening batsman gets out first ball of the innings. It imposes a tremendous pressure on the following batsmen. Its the responsibility of the openers to shield the middleorder batsmen from the new ball and get the leather soft. However in our case, we always play with one less batsman (when Alok was around we played with two less batsmen). Its remarkable how we survived and recuperated from this absolute disaster initiated by Hannan. This also speaks highly of the fighting spirit of the Tigers (minus Hannan). Some of his admirers have been suggesting to give him another chance. But doesnt it feel like watching a re-run of an old movie over and over again, becoz we cant afford to have satellite channel? It was foolish of the selectors to come here with only 2 specialist openers. It will be more foolish now if they persist with Hannan for the next series. By giving him a vacation as was suggested by some (as in the case of Ashraful and Alok) wouldnt work either. Becoz its not that he is tired or burnt out (he hardly had a batting in the series to become exhausted) and needs a rest. His whole batting technique is flawed. He may have performed brilliantly in Australia, but one performance among a trillion paramount disasters doesnt justify his place in the team. If Alok was given a break for scoring in single digits in successive tests, then Hannan should be given a break of say 2 years before he is ever considered for an opener slot. None deserves to hold a place in the team, let alone the slot of an opener, if his batting style is flawed. Usually the first ball of the innings is a loosener for the bowler. A ball pitched way outside the off stamp can be left alone judging its merit. However a ball pitched on the off stamp and moving in - cannot under no circumstances be left alone. If this is not a total absence of batting prowess, than nothing is! Lets just GET RID OF HIM...and get someone new in without these cobwebs. Let Hannan work on his technique (I wonder if he would ever be able to do exactly that) and show if he has remodeled his batting in the national arena. But he DOES NOT DESERVE RESPECT on the pitch and IS LIKE ANTI-DEPRESSENT for the whole team. We would be BETTER OFF without him.